A picturesque winter picture of Glastonbury Tor is named a winner of a Winter Photography Competition.
We launched our Winter Photo Competition to get our residents out capturing wildlife, stunning landscapes, or animals this festive season.
Julie Turnbull, from Street in Somerset, entered after spotting the competition on LiveWest’s social media and decided to take her eighteen-year-old son Ethan, along with her two cockapoo dogs Lily and Flo, on a long walk along the river Brue to capture the Tor which is near to her home.
She entered with a frosty plant, in front of green fields and the clear river showing the Tor behind it, to scoop one of the four prizes on offer.
Julie Turnbull, 39, said: “Wow that’s amazing I can’t believe I’ve won. I just thought, ‘oh, let's enter it’. I wasn't necessarily going to walk down there but when I saw the competition, it just gave me that motivation to go for a wander somewhere a bit different, especially when you're faced with a wintry weekend, I thought ‘let's get outside in the fresh air to enjoy it’.
“It’s so lovely down there and peaceful, and with the coating of frost it made it feel Christmassy.
“I should go there more often because it is so pretty, and it’s close to us. I usually just walk the dogs in a nearby field, but seeing the competition motivated me to go that little bit further and it reminded me actually how nice it is down there.
“I tend to just take photos of the dogs more than the surroundings. I saw the composition and I thought ‘oh, that looks alright’ and snapped a quick photo on my phone and was surprised that it came out okay.”
Julie, who has been our resident for 17 years, is thrilled to have won the competition and thanks LiveWest for putting a big smile on her face.
She is encouraging others to go out and explore walks in their area. Although she is a winner, Julie isn’t a professional photographer but thought she would give it a go and is pleased she did.
Julie said: “With the cost of living and everything else going on it’s nice to just get out and focus on the beauty outside. I think it was a really good idea to run the competition, as even if I didn't win, it still did its job and it got me out of the house and looking at my surroundings which quite often you don't get the time or the chance to do.
“It just goes to show that by going out with your phone and pressing the button you can create something that other people like and enjoy. I think it's important to realise that you don't have to be a professional photographer or know what you're doing, you can just go out with your phone and see what you can capture.”
Leanda Flower, our Community Investment Manager, said: “As the frosty mornings and dark evenings settle in, people may feel like staying in during the winter months. We hope this competition encouraged people to get outdoors and spend more time connecting to nature or sharing a winter walk.
“It was fantastic to see the range of photos, it made the judging difficult as we had such a great variety of winter photos so thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to the winners.”
Part of the judging panel was professional photographer, Gareth Williams, who runs GRW Photography.
Gareth said: “It was wonderful to see so many entries to LiveWest's winter photo competition. The standard of the photos was really good, and I was impressed by the thought gone into them. It's a great time of year to go out and take photos and I loved the variety.
“There were some great landscape shots and also some lovely pictures of pets. Congratulations to the winners and wishing everyone a happy Christmas.”